This n' That

A male Black Headed Grosbeak at my feeder; I've seen a female, too, so hopefully they'll have babies. 

I caught Lucy trying to sneak a sip of my tea.  She likes it because I put milk in it, so I have to be alert!  This attempt didn't work for her, happily for me. 

I just stopped and stared for a minute at this dogwood tree in Lake Arrowhead village before I thought to take a photo.  I've never seen a dogwood tree so loaded with blossoms, let alone a pink one with so many flowers! 

Lake Gregory was looking pretty on a day last week. 

I let these roses dry in the vase.  I thought they looked sort of vintage, so I photographed them by my mother's 88 year old recipe box.  It's full of recipes in her handwriting and my sister's handwriting.  Both are in heaven now, so it's one of my most treasured things. 


To see more beautiful creatures click here.
To see some pretty pink things click here.

Friday Skies

Two days ago we had a light dusting of snow.  It was gone by noon the next day. 

The clouds the storm left behind over Lake Arrowhead were so beautiful. 

The lilacs are still going strong, loving the cooler weather.  It's 75 F today, though, so I don't know how much longer they'll last. 

The clouds were almost gone by the end of the day but, happily, a few stayed around to make a pretty sunset. 


To see more pretty skies click here.

Birds, Blooms and Bees

Spring is going full speed ahead here in the mountains where I live.

That's a House Finch in the top photo and a Black Headed Grosbeak in the second photo. 

The nursery has beautiful pink dogwoods for sale.  I bought one years ago from a different nursery, but when it bloomed the following year it was white, so I'm a little leery of buying another one. 

The forest is looking beautiful this time of year. 

And baby oak leaves are popping out everywhere. 

Wisteria is blooming at the local gas station and mini mart, and the bees are loving it. 

Lilacs are blooming all around my cottage, and I'm loving that!


To see more beautiful birds and creatures click here.
To see more beautiful pink things click here.

This Tuesday

Lilacs are blooming, so I picked some for my studio.  The air up here smells wonderful right now with lilacs blooming all over, and temperatures warm enough to release the scents of the pines and cedars. 

Cherry trees are blooming over by the old Ice Castle in Blue Jay. 

And this is what I had for breakfast; Octavia Earl Grey Lavender Tea and a cream cheese pastry.  Yum! 


To see more of what's going on around the world on this Tuesday click here.

A Spotty Spring

The first Grosbeak of the year arrived a couple of days ago, and I was so glad to see him!  (Excuse the bad quality photo; I took the picture through a window with my iPhone X.  In fact, all of the following photos were taken with it...it doesn't do too badly for a camera phone).

It's been an interesting week, but typical of Spring.  Fruit trees blossoming one day.

Fog the next day, so cold that the trees out on the rim (Hwy 18) were iced.

So pretty to see.

And, it's interesting how some of the branches were untouched by the ice. 

 The next day was gorgeous, but chilly, with high winds pushing the clouds around.  (That's Lake Silverwood in the photo). 

The Lunaria (Money Plant and Honesty are some other names for it) was undaunted by all the weather extremes.  Spring is kind of spotty up here so far.  My lilacs have buds but no blooms yet, but I saw lilacs that were already in bloom in some places, and it's the same for all of the other blooming things in these mountains. 


To see more beautiful creatures click here.

Bunny Time

Happy Easter everyone, I hope the Easter Bunny brings you lots of goodies.

"Easter Bunny?  Never met the guy.  Now, where'd you put the carrots?" 


To see more beautiful creatures, both real and unreal, click here.
To see more beautiful pink things click here.

My World This Tuesday

We're having a very blustery day here today.  The little squirrels hang on tight and stick to traveling on the larger, more unmovable branches. 

The wind is roaring through the pines and cedars and the bare branches of the oak trees...

And there are a few clouds floating around making shadows on the bare, yet to be green mountain meadows... 

While the daffodils are dancing so fast I couldn't get a non-blurry photo of them! 


To see more of what's going on around the world this Tuesday, click here.

Acorns

While on a walk around Lake Gregory I spotted a pair of Acorn Woodpeckers. 

One was busy hammering acorns in the holes that they had made in the thick bark of a Ponderosa Pine.  I think the other one was looking for bugs on the tree, or perhaps it was a youngster being shown how to store food.

I wonder if they ever get headaches?  Poor birds, I hope not!


To see other beautiful creatures click here.

Clearing Skies

Lots of rain yesterday, clearing skies today... 


To see more beautiful skies around the world click here.

Spring is Here

Happy first day of Spring!  Yesterday I found some daffodils blooming at Lake Gregory in a sunny spot...

and a robin who was very suspicious of me and my camera.  He kept hopping around so much, only stopping every few seconds to glare at me, I had a hard time getting a photo! 

The pussy willows were just beginning to poke their heads out from under the covers...

and a most welcome sight was a little water running in a seasonal creek that flows into Lake Gregory. 

However, the lake is still down by about eight feet.  This is the lowest I've ever seen it, due in part to the manual lowering of the lake so the dam could have some much needed work done (they're still not finished) and due in part to the lack of rainfall this winter. 

It's still beautiful though.  We're supposed to get another rain storm coming in tomorrow, and this is supposed to be a really wet, warm one from the south Pacific.  I hope the rest of March and all of April is as rainy as the first part of March has been! 


To see what the rest of the world looks like on Tuesday click here.

Blue

There have been lots of clouds around this month, and we've received nearly nine inches of rain!  More is predicted for next Wednesday, and I sure hope the prediction is correct. 

This Steller's Jay posed for a portrait at the end of last month.  That was the last good amount of snow we got; there was slush on the ground this morning from last night's storm and a bit of hail, but it's all melted now. 

To see more beautiful creatures and skies click here  and here.

A Favorite Photo

This is one of my favorite photos that I took in the spring of 2013.  It's baby oak leaves, and I always love how colorful they are when they're brand new and tiny.  It's too early up here for anything to be putting out leaves or blooming yet, but I'm more hopeful than I was a couple of weeks ago that there will be wildflower blooms since we've received more rain and there are several storms predicted to bring rain here. 

I'm linking with Through My Lens

Socializing

A mallard couple and a Great Blue Heron at Lake Gregory in the spring of 2013. 

I'm happily sitting by my fireplace right now, listening to the sound of...RAIN!  Yes, we're finally getting a really good rain instead of the few scattered droplets that have tried to pass for a rain storm so far this year.  The weather persons are saying the rest of March might be a wet one for Southern California.  I sure hope they're right!  A couple weeks of rain won't end our drought, but it will certainly help the forest.

To see more beautiful creatures click here.

Can You...

Spot Mrs. Coyote in this photo? 

She's in the red circle.  I didn't really spot her when I took this photo; I just liked the sun and shadows.  When she started down the little slope I spotted her. 

These photos were taken in late spring a couple of years ago, but I know that the coyote family is still up on the hillside above me because I hear them singing every now and then.

This is a corner of my art studio in the early morning sun.  The flowers aren't real but I think they look pretty with the sunlight shining on them. 

I'm linking with Saturday's Critters and Pink Saturday.